Altermagnetism in MnTe: origin, predicted manifestations, and routes to detwinning

TL;DR

This paper explores the altermagnetic properties of MnTe, analyzing its magnetic order, potential for detwinning, and magnetooptical responses, supported by first-principles calculations.

Contribution

It predicts how MnTe's unique magnetic structure can be used to create detwinned samples and observe altermagnetic effects through magnetooptical signals.

Findings

MnTe exhibits a ferromagnetic order in ab planes with antiferromagnetic stacking along c.

First-principles calculations show observable magnetooptical responses as signatures of altermagnetism.

Proposes routes for manufacturing detwinned MnTe samples to study altermagnetic phenomena.

Abstract

MnTe has recently attracted attention as an altermagnetic candidate. Experimentally it has an altermagnetic order of ferromagnetic $ab$ planes, stacked antiferromagnetically along $c$. We show that this magnetic order (by itself non-trivial, since the in-plane exchange in antiferromagnetic) opens intriguing possibility of manufacturing altermagnetically-detwinned samples and generate observable magnetooptical response (which we calculate from first principles) as a signature of altermagnetism.